Old Town or Ensanche? Where to Stay in Bilbao

Bilbao is a compact city, and that changes the calculation. Almost anywhere central puts you within walking distance of the Guggenheim, the old town and the river. So the question is not how close you are to things, but which version of Bilbao you want to wake up in: the medieval old town, the nineteenth-century grid, or the rebuilt riverfront.

What to know first

• The centre is walkable end to end in roughly thirty minutes
• Metro, tram and bus share a single stored-value card
• The airport bus runs into the city centre in around twenty-five minutes
• Weekend nights in the old town are lively and loud

Abando and Indautxu: the Ensanche

The nineteenth-century expansion across the river from the old town, built on a grid around the Gran Vía. This is the practical centre of Bilbao — department stores, the main railway and metro interchange, the Fine Arts Museum, and a short flat walk to the Guggenheim.

Hotel Carlton, on Plaza Federico Moyúa, is the historic address; it served as the seat of the Basque government during the Civil War and still has the air of a grand hotel. Gran Hotel Domine Bilbao faces the Guggenheim directly, with interiors by the designer Javier Mariscal and an atrium built around a tall column of river stones. Meliá Bilbao, designed by Ricardo Legorreta, sits a couple of minutes from the museum.

Casco Viejo: the old town

The medieval core on the right bank, built around the Siete Calles — the seven original streets — with the arcaded Plaza Nueva, the Gothic Santiago Cathedral and the highest concentration of pintxo bars in the city. Accommodation here skews towards small hotels and pensiones rather than international names.

Stay here if you want to eat your way through the evening on foot and do not mind noise on Friday and Saturday nights. It is also the best-sheltered part of town when the drizzle sets in.

Abandoibarra: the riverfront

The redeveloped stretch of former dockland between the old town and Deusto, and the reason Bilbao looks the way it does now — the Guggenheim, the Iberdrola Tower, the Euskalduna concert hall and a long riverside walk. Modern, open and quiet at night, with the fewest street-level restaurants of the three.

Getxo and Las Arenas: the coast

About twenty minutes out by metro, where the river meets the sea. Grand nineteenth-century villas, beaches, and the UNESCO-listed Vizcaya Bridge with its hanging gondola. A good choice in summer, or for a calmer last night before an early flight.

Tip: Base yourself in the Ensanche and walk into the Casco Viejo for dinner. You get quiet nights, a wider choice of rooms and better value — and the walk back across the river after pintxos is one of the pleasures of the city.